Padres overcome early deficit, ride ‘pen to win over Nationals

Martin Maldonado homered and the San Diego Padres’ bullpen pitched six scoreless innings Tuesday night as they rallied for a 4-3 win over the visiting Washington Nationals.
Jason Adam (6-3) got the win with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless work and Robert Suarez tied Kansas City’s Carlos Estevez for the MLB lead with his 22nd save by pitching a scoreless ninth. Starter Ryan Bergert left with no outs in the fourth inning after getting hit with a 103 mph line drive off the bat of Jacob Young. Bergert permitted five hits and three runs, walking three and fanning four.
Trevor Williams (3-9) absorbed the loss for Washington, yielding four runs on seven hits over five innings with two walks and three strikeouts. The walks contributed to San Diego’s go-ahead run in the sixth inning.
Gavin Sheets and Xander Bogaerts each drew four-pitch walks to start the sixth, forcing Williams out in favor of Cole Henry. He then walked Jake Cronenworth to load the bases and Jose Iglesias cashed in Sheets with a groundout to first.
An inning earlier, Maldonado tied the game with his fourth homer, jumping on a first-pitch fastball from Williams and launching it an estimated 400 feet into the seats in left-center.
The Nationals initiated the scoring in the second with two runs. Young dropped a safety squeeze bunt that scored Daylen Lile, and James Wood worked a bases-loaded walk that plated Riley Adams.
Wood’s groundout scored Young for a 3-0 lead in the fourth, but Washington wasn’t able to expand its lead due to a lack of clutch hitting. The Nationals went 7-for-14 with runners in scoring position Monday night in a 10-6 win but was just 1-of-9 in this one.
That began to catch up with the Nationals when the Padres cracked the code on Williams with two runs in their half of the fourth. Xander Bogaerts’ groundout scored Luis Arraez and Jake Cronenworth drilled an RBI double off the right field wall to plate Sheets.